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“It’s almost a cliché,” allows Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes. “We still see each other for lunch. We’re very involved in each other’s families. We all stood up at each other’s weddings and are godparents to each other’s kids.”

Rarely, however, is the entire ensemble all together in the same place at the same time; since the show’s 25th anniversary last September, they’ve done maybe a half dozen en masse appearances, including this weekend’s Toronto ComiCon.

They look forward to these occasions almost as much as the fans. “It’s quite exceptional,” says Frakes. “And what’s really exceptional is the dinner after the convention. There are a few cocktails and we all get to pretend that we’re 30 again.”

“It’s what we live for,” agrees shipmate LeVar Burton. “The amount of laughing and the amount of hugging is just magic; it’s real sustenance for all of us.

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“In the old days, we were together every day. So now when we can all get together again like this, it is really special for us.”

I talked to Frakes and Burton separately last week and have excerpted both conversations into a combined question-and-answer session:

Q: When you first signed on, there was no reason to expect the show was going to work. And in the unlikely event that it did, you were running the risk of being typecast forever.

FRAKES: Well, it ended up being like that. With the exception of Patrick and Shatner, most of the Star Trek actors have been typecast. I was just so excited to have a good job. . . . But nobody knew. The studio was hedging their bets from the very beginning. We had three contracts. We had a contract to do the pilot. Then we had a contract that if the pilot went well, we would do the next 13 episodes. And then there was a third rider on the contract to pick up the first season and move on from there.

BURTON: It could have gone much differently. The fact that it didn’t both amazes me and fills me with wonder and gratitude. That’s the miracle of my life. I am not a guy who picks and chooses what he does, you know? From Roots to Star Trek to Reading Rainbow, it’s all been a matter of me just saying, “Yes, thank you, I’ll do that.” I’m the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world, because I keep stumbling my way into a wonderful career.

Q: The Star Trek franchise has proven a particularly fruitful breeding ground for actors-turned-directors: Leonard Nimoy, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill. The two of you have had particularly prolific second careers behind the camera.

BURTON: That was all (executive producer) Rick Berman. He never really encouraged it. He really didn’t. Until you expressed serious interest. And then it was, “Not just yet. You’ve gotta go to school. You have to learn the job from the inside out.” And that was the beginning of it. You presented yourself as an earnest disciple, he gave you the opportunity to go to school. And at the end of school you got a slot. And whether you got a second slot or not depended upon how you performed the first time.

FRAKES: You do a lot of waiting around when you make a TV show, especially with a cast of seven or eight regulars. And in that waiting around, you can only take so many naps. So I spent a lot of time on the set. And I love to be on set. And it became clearer and clearer to me that the job of the director was involved in every shot, and there was something about the involvement, the control and the interaction. . . . You’ve got to make your eight pages a day, and you’ve got to tell the story clearly within the number of hours and the amount of money that they have allotted for you to spend. You have to be efficient and you have to be prepared. I always have a plan. And it has served me very well, as you can see. It’s what I do now, all I do all year now is direct episodes. And that’s my strongest suit.

Q: Having been part of the first major Star Trek reboot, how do you feel about the new J.J. Abrams films?

FRAKES: I think it’s spectacular. I’m a huge J.J. fan and I think they were wise to give him the reigns. I think that what he’s done is exactly what needed to be done. I’m really excited about the second one. I visited the set, actually, and it’s going to be amazing. Without being bitter, they didn’t shortchange them. The visual effects are spectacular, nothing like the original. It used to be that the ships were models (mounted) on a stick, little glued-together plastic models that they would run in front of black velvet and that would be the spaceship. Times have certainly changed.

BURTON: When you’re handed the keys to Daddy’s Cadillac, you better know what you’re doing. Having said that, I think J.J. did an amazing job. I’m really looking forward to what he has to offer this time, because I think in the tradition of all Star Trek movies and certainly all of the best Star Trek movies, they’re actually about something. They’re about more than just entertainment. They communicate the intrinsic value in the human journey. In Star Trek it is the best of us out there, the best aspects of who we are. That’s hugely inspirational for a lot of people, myself included. I come honestly to Star Trek, as a fan. I watched Star Trek growing up and it had a very serious impact on the development of my own self-identity, seeing myself represented as part of the popular culture, the idea that we could eventually live in a time, and would evolve to a place, where we had resolved all these nonsensical issues that separate us.

Q: Obligatory geek question: Do you collect your own action figures?

FRAKES: Sure. I’ve got a garage full of little Rikers. My kid used to take them into the bathtub and pretend to drown daddy.

BURTON: Yeah, I have a few of my own. But I actually collect Brent Spiner action figures. I mean, I can look at LeVar Burton anytime, you know? One day I’m going to corner the market on Datas.

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